Monday, September 19, 2016

Transvaal Farm and C'estbon Cheese: As Goat As It Gets

"The Girls" A bevy of Rhode Island Reds.

To bond with the rural charm that defines Perth County,
consider day-tripping by car and staying in farmhouses or farm guest houses. Agritourism,
as it is defined most commonly, constitutes any agriculturally-based operation
that brings visitors to a farm. Many agro-tourists have a strong interest in
all things culinary. They want to meet the local farmers, artisans and
processors and talkwith them about what is
involved in food production while getting an authentic taste of rural life.

In Perth County, culinary entrepreneurs continue to develop
fresh takes on the farm-to-table ethos while examining the roots of local
cuisine and developing new region-specific specialties and products. They
characterize the entrepreneurial spirit of the modernist vanguard by re-imagining the food chain, safeguarding
the terroir and adding their unique contributions to the collective Ontario
culinary identity.

On a beautiful mid-September day, at the invitation of Stratford
Tourism and the Ontario Culinary Alliance, I visited Transvaal Farm
and the small on-farm family run C’estbon cheese business as part of the
itinerary of a carefully planned FAM tour. The tour was geared to familiarize the press with many of the epic culinary attractions in and around Stratford
and St. Marys, Ontario.

Down a bucolic backroad on the verge of the historic stonetown of St. Marys lies Transvaal Farm at the end of a tree-lined driveway. The
pastoral 50-acre farm has been home to Cindy Taylor’s family for over three
decades. Cindy and her raconteur husband Scott McLauchlan are our formidable
hosts on this informative and entertaining agritourism experience. The main
elements of this adventure are a guided tour by Scott of the storybook property
and farm gardens, a tour and a lavish farm-to-table breakfast prepared by Cindy at the
guest house, and a tour of the small-scale artisan goat cheese plant operated
by Cindy’s brother, owner and cheesemaker, George Taylor.

Shortly after our arrival we walk over to the chicken coop
to meet “the girls” a bevy of Rhode Island Reds, and collect some freshly laid
eggs for breakfast. Although they are excellent free range foragers, McLauchlan tells us, “the girls” need some protection from the late-night wildlife
interlopers that prowl the farm.

Despite the intense hot summer we’ve had, part of the farm
garden is overflowing with the bright greenery of nasturtium leaves and their
vibrant edible flowers. There are plenty of hardy vegetables still in the field, especially
colourful varieties of ubiquitous peppers and tomatoes ripe for the picking.

Back at the Transvaal Farm guesthouse the refrigerator is
stocked with samplings of fresh, milky and satisfyingly tart C’estbon goat
cheese, made on the property from a neighbouring herd of goats. There is farm
fresh goat milk on offer and a delicious creamy goat yogurt that is like crème
fraiche – “Not without similarities to Iceland’s super-trendy Skyr,” says
Ontario Culinary Alliance, Community Manager, Agatha Podgorski – the
yogurt we are told is still in the beta stage and we are the first to enjoy a sampling.
Technically, the yogurt is a cheese with full-fat content.

Transvaal Farm Guest House Interior

Cindy a graduate of the Baking Arts program
at George Brown College has outdoneherself by
crafting a selection of high-quality baked goods made in small batches using traditional methods from Transvaal Farm’s fresh
ingredients. These are the products that Cindy takes to the St. Marys Farmers’
Market on Saturdays in season. We are the recipients
of much culinary largesse that includes her baking and Transvaal Farms preserves.

George is welcoming and willing to share his story. What
began as a retirement project sixteen years ago – which George hoped would be
able to sustain its own costs – became a successful artisan goat cheese
operation that soon showed both sustainability and profitability. George
famously swapped a flock of sheep for a herd of Toggenburg and La Mancha goats,
and began crafting farmstead, small-batch, cheese- by-hand, using only the milk
from his own herd to create his proprietary C’estbon chèvre.

In time, George eventually relocated his goats to a
neighbouring farm. Today, once a week about 5,000 litres of goat milk is
delivered from a local producer,Hewitt’s Dairy,
and the process begins. Not a single item goes off the property without
George’s thumbprint on it. Authentic artisan cheese can’t be mass-produced: it is limited in quantity and has specific characteristics deemed to be
specialty in nature.

A sense of community
and an entrepreneurial culture are important economic drivers in rural areas. Upwards of 80
percent of Stratford’s upscale chefs and restaurateurs purchase C’estbon chevre.

One of the experiences Cindy offers to farm guests is the
opportunity to participate in an on-site hands-on culinary workshop. She offers
workshops on preserving, home-made bread or pastry, chocolate truffles, and
even making your own goat cheese. You choose which culinary experience you
would like to partake in and Cindy will arrange a convenient day to make it
happen.

The culinary tour of Transvaal Farm and the C’estbon cheese
operations was both inspiring and informative. It
reminded us of the strong links of like-minded entrepreneurs by talking about
the things we all have in common — enjoying the benefits that we receive from a
healthy entrepreneurial, artisan and agriculture culture. On another level it reminds us to embrace unique products that are locally conceived, locally
controlled and as rich in local content as the distinctive terroir and
time-honoured ways of preparing them of any given era.

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Ontario Culinary Tourist

I am a
writer, culinary columnist and food and social media editor in London and
Toronto, Ontario. A chef, former restaurateur and hospitality consultant with
over thirty years in the industry, my work has appeared in a variety of print
and on-line publications. I also freelance written editorial and visual content
for tourism and corporate clients.